What is Comparative Literature?

Comparative Literature at Oxford University. His Comparative Literary Studies: An Introduction (1973) has been an eminent classical work in teaching Comparative Literature in world universities. The fundamental principle of this book lies in the fact that we cannot know national literature without understanding the literatures of other nations. Prawer discusses the theories and methodology of Comparative Literature in ten chapters accompanied with practical examples. He starts his book with influence studies and meticulously moves to more recent fields of Comparative Literature such as translation studies, adaptation, thematology, motifs, genres, movements, periods, structure, "placing" and literary criticism. This short and useful book opens the way for organized research in Comparative Literature and is useful for students of Comparative Literature as well as Persian and foreign literatures and students of humanities who are interested in interdisciplinary studies. This article is the translation of the first chapter of this book which will be soon published as a textbook by SAMT Press.